CALL FOR PAPERS FOR SPECIAL ISSUE OF
JOURNAL OF COGNITIVE ENGINEERING AND DECISION MAKING
Improving Human-Robot Interaction in Complex Operational Environments:
Translating Theory into Practice
The last decade has seen an unprecedented proliferation in the use of
robots in a broad range of complex domains such as urban search-and-
rescue, military operations (e.g., explosive ordinance disposal,
intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance), scientific
exploration in underwater and space expeditions, law enforcement
(e.g., bomb squads), manufacturing, and healthcare (e.g., tele-robotic
surgery). Remotely controlled ground, aerial, sea surface, and
underwater robotic vehicles are being utilized as tools to safely
extend the sensory and psychomotor capabilities of humans to remote
environments. More importantly, with the ever-increasing
technological sophistication in their design and capabilities, robots
are becoming more than mere tools but rather quasi-team members whose
tasks and behaviors have to be integrated with the task requirements
and expectations of their human teammates.
Accordingly, in the past decade, the scientific research community has
focused considerable attention on developing a better understanding of
the technical and social issues that affect human-robot interaction
(HRI), particularly in the context of teams. To increase the utility
of this growing body of work, researchers must be able to translate
their theories and empirical findings into practical, useful guidance
for improving HRI across various domains. In turn, these findings
could potentially generate new research, such as further empirical
validation of proposed design recommendations in different contexts
and the development and validation of theoretical and quantitative
models of human performance in HRI.
The goal of this special issue, therefore, will be to present
practical, useful recommendations, that are theoretically-based and
empirically-validated, for the design of systems and processes to
support HRI in complex operational environments as well as delineate a
'research roadmap' that highlights areas warranting further
investigation. We invite theoretical, methodological, and empirical
papers that address issues including (but not limited to) the
following topic areas:
· Sensor Interpretation and Integration: information
visualization; object recognition; motion awareness, etc.
· Manipulation: tele-operation and motor control such as during
mine removal, USAR, and RSTA, etc.
· Navigation: local and global spatial comprehension; robot
localization; motion awareness; cognitive maps, etc.
· Planning: decision-making; task prioritization; contingency
planning; dynamic re-planning, etc.
· Multiple Robot Operations: operator-to-robot ratio; attention
(focused and divided); task switching; situation awareness; adaptive
automation, etc.
· Team Performance: human-human group dynamics; collaboration
and coordination; shared situation awareness, etc.
· Trust and Acceptance: human-robot group dynamics;
anthropomorphism; system reliability, etc.
· Technological Issues: system capabilities and limitations;
latency; bandwidth; use of multiple modalities, etc.
· Research Issues: scaled real-world testbeds vs. simulated
virtual environments; platform-specific vs. platform-general
considerations (e.g., UGV vs. UAV); metrics / measures and benchmarks;
individual differences, etc.
All contributors are asked to include in their manuscripts a final
section that explicitly and succinctly demonstrates how their research
findings can be translated into practice. This section should be
formatted as a bulleted list of guidelines, lessons learned, or
implications for practice, with a brief rationale that explains and
supports each statement.
Manuscripts should be prepared according to the Publication Manual of
the American Psychological Association (5th ed.). Review the JCEDM
“Information for Contributors” webpage [http://www.hfes.org/web/PubPages/JCEDMauthorinfo.pdf
] for more specific instructions. Manuscripts should be no more than
25–30 double-spaced pages. The title page, abstract, and author
biographies do not count toward the page limit.
The closing date for submissions is 15 November 2009. Please let us
know by 15 October 2009 if you are planning to submit a paper.
Manuscripts should be submitted electronically to cedm.journal at satechnologies.com
, with emails entitled “Submission for Improving Human-Robot
Interaction in Complex Operational Environments.”
Please direct inquiries regarding the suitability of work to the
Special Issue Guest Editors (see contact information below). For
technical questions (e.g., formatting, review status, etc.), please
contact Haydee Cuevas, the Administrative Liaison.
Special Issue Guest Editors
Jennifer M. Riley
SA Technologies
jennifer at satechnologies.com
Patricia L. McDermott
Alion Science & Technology
pmcdermott at alionscience.com
Douglas J. Gillan
North Carolina State University
djgillan at gwced.ncsu.edu
Administrative Liaison
Haydee M. Cuevas
SA Technologies
haydee.cuevas at satechnologies.com